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From Salutary Neglect to Taxation: The Causes of the American Revolution

For many years, the colonies were treated with salutary neglect.

Besides providing opportunities for trade and offering protection, England let the colonies govern themselves and develop their own economic networks and ideologies.

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Salutary neglect was a policy of not strictly enforcing parliamentary laws in the colonies.

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However, in 1754, the French and Indian War began. It was part of a larger conflict between Britain and France.

From 1756 to 1763, France and Great Britain fought what is known as the Seven Years’ War. While the war broke out in Europe, it quickly spread to North America, where the French and their Native American allies fought the British and even to India, where both enlisted the help of Indian allies.

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During the French and Indian War, British officials convened a meeting called the Albany Congress.

At the Congress, important colonial tradesmen, led by a Pennsylvania newspaperman named Benjamin Franklin, devised the Albany Plan of the Union.

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The Albany Plan of the Union called for a confederation of colonies able to defend themselves from European and Native American attackers.

However, the Albany Plan of Union was not accepted because the colonies felt it was too restrictive while the British felt it allowed too much power in colonial hands.

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The war proved to be a disaster for the French, who lost in all three places, losing their Canadian territories in North America and their trading region in India.

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Britain’s empire in America seemed secure after its victory over France in 1763, but the cost of war had been high.

Dealing with this debt started a chain of events that led to deteriorating relations between the mother country and the colonists in North America.

A gulf grew between England and its colonies.

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English citizens were paying higher taxes but the colonists did not want to pay for England’s wars.

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King George III also signed the Proclamation Line of 1763.

In 1763, Native Americans in the Ohio Valley refused to hand over conquered lands to the British.

During Pontiac’s Rebellion, Ottowan Chief Pontiac attacked many colonial settlements.

This rebellion was subdued but to make peace the King signed the Proclamation Line of 1763.

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The Proclamation Line of 1763 pledged that American colonists would not settle west of the Appalachian Mountains.

Many colonists ignored it.

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Burdened by its war debt, England abandoned its policy of salutary neglect.

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The Sugar Act of 1764 - Taxed sweeteners; particularly the molasses the colonists used when defying British rules to make and trade in rum

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The Quartering Act - Required colonists to give room and board to British soldiers

But these acts were not strictly enforced!

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However, when the Stamp Act went into effect, the colonists were enraged.

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The Stamp Act taxed directly all paper used in the colonies.

Patrick Henry said, “No taxation without representation!”

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The colonists boycotted British goods and because the boycotts hurt England, the Stamp Act was cancelled but it was replaced by the Declaratory Act, which maintained the crown’s right to impose future taxes on the colonies.

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The Townshend Acts, passed in 1767, placed

duties on imports and also reestablished Writs of Assistance, which allowed customs officials to search homes, businesses, and warehouses for smuggled goods without a warrant from a judge.

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The Townshend Acts were also repealed.

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Though Boston remained generally calm, in 1770, one angry crowd threw rocks at the custom house, provoking guards to fire on protestors, killing some and injuring others (the Boston Massacre).

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Because colonists were so wary of taxes, even

the Tea Act which forced colonists to buy East India Company tea at bargain prices prompted some colonists dressed as Native Americans, to board a ship in Boston Harbor and dump its cargo of tea overboard.

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In order to punish the colonists for the Boston

Tea Party, Parliament passed the Coercive Acts.

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The Coercive Acts closed Boston Harbor until

the tea was paid for and expanded the Quartering Act.

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The colonists named the Coercive Acts the

Intolerable Acts.

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Enlightenment ideals also influenced the

colonists.

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And Revolution soon began!